Andrews Sill, Conductor
Andrews Sill, acclaimed as a "gifted young conductor" with a "commanding presence," is in his second season as Music Director of the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin, and serves as Music Director of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. He recently completed a highly successful tenure as Music Director of the Lubbock Symphony in west Texas, where his genuine rapport with audiences, engaging programming, and energetic style on the podium earned him local and national attention.
Sill has appeared as guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, with the symphonies of Houston, San Antonio, New Mexico, Colorado Springs, Modesto, Delaware, Long Beach, Charleston, and Anchorage, as well as the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra. He has led the Philharmonic Orchestras of Erie, Naples, Reno, and Tulsa, the Orquestra Sinfónica da Sno Paulo and the Orquestra Sinfónica da Bahia. Sill has also served as cover conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, assisting Christoph Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel, and Krystof Penderecki.
Andrews Sill continues to distinguish himself in opera, oratorio and ballet performances, as well as symphonic appearances. He has toured with the New York City Ballet in North and South America and has conducted for the company at Lincoln Center. Sill has led performances for Charleston Ballet Theater, Metropolitan Ballet of Detroit, Miami City Ballet, and Boston Ballet. He has appeared with the Orlando Opera Company, and has served as assistant conductor for the Florentine Opera, as well as conducting concert performances of operas and scenes by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Wagner, Puccini, Britten, Gershwin, Foss, and others. Of a 1998 performance of Fauré’s Requiem, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel raved “The MSO’s young associate conductor knew what he wanted every bar of the piece and coaxed it from his performers with clear, expressive and, yes, beautiful gestures. Sill’s phrasing and dynamics were so convincing that it was impossible to imagine this music performed any other way.”
Associate Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2001, Sill joined the MSO as Assistant Conductor in 1995. He previously held the post of Associate Conductor with the Virginia Symphony and the Florida Symphony Orchestra. He began his career as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Ballet from 1988-1990.
Active as a concert pianist, Andrews Sill is one of few artists who perform concerti leading the orchestra from the keyboard. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported after a recent performance of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 that "Sill played and led a performance that had the cohesive, communicative quality of well-played chamber music. . . .The effect was a bold, invigorating performance that caught the wit and edge of the piece." In addition to giving solo recitals, Sill has been a member of the Whitney Trio and the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble. His teachers included Ward Davenny, Constance Keene, and John Browning.
Born in New York City, Andrews Sill received his bachelor's degree with honors from Yale University where he studied both piano and conducting from the age of fifteen. He continued his education under scholarship and fellowship awards from the Manhattan School of Music, earning his doctorate in 1987. Sill has studied conducting with Hugo Fiorato, and with Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music School. He was one of a select group of young conductors chosen to be featured in the American Symphony Orchestra League's National Conductor Preview in 2001.
